


Energy of the Sun

by EmpressAelin



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fire Lily AU, MuffinLance, Photosynthesis Zuko, Zuko is a drama plant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:01:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24502015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmpressAelin/pseuds/EmpressAelin
Summary: Zuko realizes that whatever sickness is affecting his appetite has consequences of not eating and then not getting enough sun.-----A short take of MuffinLance's new AU, Fire Lily, where strong firebenders can get energy from the sun and don't need to eat. Only I added that if there is a sudden cut off from the sun then the body resets to needing food and if they haven't been eating decently they feel the starvation. Basically how even if a plant needs sunlight to grow and stay a live it still needs nutrients from the soil.
Comments: 63
Kudos: 1697





	Energy of the Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The One Where Zuko's Hair Matches Sokka's and Other Tales](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21632206) by [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/pseuds/MuffinLance). 



> This is likely a one-shot, if I ever need a break from writing the Dragon AU I may expand this but it is a one shot.

He’d noticed it casually throughout his life. It was in the little details.

How he did better and could practice longer in the outside courtyards versus indoors. How he never needed snacks when they went to beach as children. How wearing a long-sleeved shirt would leave him exhausted at the end of the day.

But it didn’t become noticeable until he was banished. On days he tried to avoid Uncle he would go the whole day not feeling any pang of hunger as long as he was outside. How getting to close to either pole near their winter would drain him of strength more than any of the other benders.

How days he spent inside left him starving like he hadn’t eaten in ages.

But he never acknowledged what connection there might have been to the old legends.

\-----

Things were going to shit.

He had freed the Avatar. Under the cover of night with no support. He had done it. He had been outside the stronghold’s gates. Stupidly, the adrenaline started to fade even as arrows still went their way. And with eh adrenaline fading he felt the darkness hunger grab him. He hadn’t eaten since a tea treat that morning, and before that had been a meager supper. He had been drilling forms constantly lately. Shirtless and on deck.

He still didn’t know why or understand what exactly was different about him, but he felt it now. How the lack of food had compounded on the missed hours of sunlight. It had taken him hours of waiting and scouting and hiding fully clothed in the shadows before he had entered the stronghold far after sunset.

So, when the arrow struck him, he couldn’t fight the black that called him.

\------

It was still dark. His body ached viciously. He was starving. The Avatar was talking but all he could do was curl himself up and shiver around his aching body.

The Avatar stopped talking.

“Zuko? Are you okay?”

He felt a hand on his shoulder and managed a snarl and a swipe of a flaming hand before his bones felt weak and he collapsed back to the ground.

“Okay! No touching, got it!” He heard the scurrying of light Airbender feet through the leaf litter. “But seriously you don’t look good. You’re really, _really_ pale. Like more that Kuzon if he came to visit me during the winter.”

He tried to snarl for the Avatar to shut up and just leave him alone. But all he managed was a groan of pain.

His stomach clenched and demanded to be fed. But there was no food, there was no light. He should have known to balance himself. Even if he hadn’t been hungry, he still should have been eating food. It was obvious now that he had been sick with something that had been affecting his appetite. The adrenaline rush from capturing the Avatar from Zhao must have finally broken whatever feverish hold the sickness had had over his body and now he was feeling the consequences of it.

He felt the Avatar settle near him. Not touching and slightly out of his weakened and limited arm reach, but stupidly close all the same.

“Zuko.” He groaned and tried to lash out at the Avatar, unwilling to go down without a fight. The Avatar yelped and there was scurrying feet again.

“I really should leave but I can’t leave him like this. But Sokka and Katara really need me to get them those frogs.”

Great, the Avatar talked to himself. Good to know. Zuko would remember that if he survived. How it would be useful he didn’t care but he had to come away from this pitiful encounter with something.

Then he feels it. The first rays of dawning sunlight and he feels his body melt under the relief. His relief doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Just like Kuzon.” The three words are whispered and have a note of shock and disbelief in them.

Zuko doesn’t care at that point. His body is no longer dying, or at least doesn’t feel like it. He takes a deep, meditative breath and soaks in the sunlight. He still aches. He feels the aftershocks of the agony in his limbs and flinches at the now phantom pain in his stomach. But he is whole again.

He lurches up and has to lean fully against his knees, but he can feel the sun through the back of his clothes, and it isn’t enough. But it is what he needs to lift his head and snarl, “Run.”

The Avatar’s eyes go wide and his mouth open to say something but Zuko doesn’t give him a chance to say anything before there is a fire punch sent his way. The Avatar leaves in a whirl of wind and Zuko can’t track where he’s gone because that fire blast had stolen all the energy he had gained from the sun and he topples over once again.

He pants and cranes his neck until he feels the sun against his face.

There is something very wrong with him. But he doesn’t have time for this. He should have been back on the ship hours ago. He hauls himself up. First a roll onto his stomach that still aches with phantom hunger. Elbows, knees, palms pressed shakily against the ground. He sits back on his feet and fumbles with the sash of his black tunic. It’s off after many fumbles and the loss of the outer layer is immediate as he feels the warmth of the sun spread through him.

He makes it to his feet. His Dao are on the ground next to where he had lain. He sheaths them silently. He feels for the sun and sets his course back to the _Wani._ They need to be as far away as they can before Zhao has a chance to even suspect he had anything to do with the Avatar’s rescue.

Making it back to the ship takes longer than he would like but by the time he makes it on deck the sun has risen far enough that he can stand up straight and no longer feels the present ache of the pain he’d felt earlier.

Uncle wasn’t on deck when he mad eit back and for that he was grateful. As much as he didn’t want to leave the upper deck, he was determined not to fall prey to whatever sickness it was that was affecting his appetite. He headed to the kitchen and took a tray from the head cook. If Zuko was forced to admit it, he preferred the assistant cook over the head cook. But Uncle favored the older of the two and so he took the tray of food without complaint and headed to his room.

He wasn’t hungry but he ate the food anyway. It was the same as always.

He swallowed the last bite and then headed back up to the deck. He needed sleep but there was no way he would be able to sleep in his room.

Sneaking and navigating the ship in a way that someone only learns how to do after three years on board, he makes his way up, and up, and up. Until he opens a window that isn’t supposed to open and scales the rest of the way up a memorized path.

Below him the ship is a bustle. His presence on deck was noted and the order he had shouted had them leaving port and heading North.

He looked over the roof of the helm tower and soak in the sun. Not a shadow to be felt.

This was nice. Whatever sickness that affected his appetite would be a problem to mention to the ship doctor later. Not Uncle Iroh, the old man would worry too much about what was probably a bug he had caught at one of the many ports they had been in and out of recently.

Sun warm on his face, Zuko found the space on the roof that had been his spot since a few months after setting sail. He leaned back and relaxed.

Sun and the smell of the open sea mixed with the smoke of the engines combined and Zuko was asleep in moments.


End file.
